


would it have been different?

by eudaemonix



Category: Puyo Puyo (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:34:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23940136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eudaemonix/pseuds/eudaemonix
Summary: Arle contemplates the nature of Primp Town, the events that transpired since her arrival, and complicated feelings of her life being stolen from her.
Relationships: Arle Nadja & Amitie
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	would it have been different?

**Author's Note:**

> This is a character study of Arle, mostly, spurred on by me thinking about her role as a mentor towards Amitie, takes place between Fever and Fever 2. Not very dialogue heavy, sounds choppy since it's intended to mimic her thought patterns and confusion...plus traveling dimensions isn't easy on the human body.  
> Hope you like it, thanks.

Arle squinted in the brightness of the midday sun, it was another perfect day in Primp. She ran her fingers through Carbuncle’s short and soft fur, letting the rays sink into her skin as she sighed. Everything was always...perfect here.

Not like that’s a bad thing, but it felt...strange. She felt like she was forgetting something, ever since she wound up on Zigzag Peak, her head had never been in the right place though.

After fighting that girl with the odd hat, whose name she later found out was Amitie, she somehow warped to another place. She hoped that it was home, but no, it was some small, quaint town. Primp Town, it was called.

A strange place to be sure, but certainly not the strangest place she’d ever seen, perhaps what was the strangest thing to her was that...nothing felt like it was in jeopardy.

Nothing was constantly under attack.

Nothing required her to be ready to fend for her life.

Nothing was waiting to kill her.

It was just peaceful.

She doesn’t know how long she’s been here at this point, every day is so dreary and uneventful that it felt like each day was the same as the last. She wondered sometimes if she was stuck in some time paradox, but everyone was happy to tell her that she wasn’t, and time was progressing as it always does.

Tick...tock...tick...tock...tick...tock...tick...tock…

...Then why did it feel like it had stopped for her ever since she ended up here?

* * *

She remembered the first time she walked into the largest building in Primp, the Magic School. She was immediately interrogated upon walking onto the grounds by multiple staff members to see identification of some sort, why she wasn’t wearing the school emblem, and frankly at the time she just wanted to blast them all into oblivion, but she tried to be polite. Tried to explain the situation as best as she could, surely if this was a place with Puyo they would know what to do, right?

She ended up being brought towards a bespectacled woman, her age was... indeterminable, and she had a little...animal, in her hands, a puppet named Popoi as she later learned.

“So you’re looking for your way home, I hear?” The woman said, her voice sounding like a gentle tinkling of chimes. “What is your name?

It was so unlike how people talked to her usually. It caught her off guard for a second.

“Oh, yes. Um… My name’s Arle. I somehow landed here after playing Puyo Puyo, like I usually do, I don’t know where I am so I’d like to get home.”

“Where are you from? Perhaps I could point you in the right direction,” the woman placed a cup of tea on the desk so gently that it barely made a sound. Arle stared at it, her hands cupped around it so gingerly, as if she was afraid it would break.

It felt like everything was breaking. Where...was she?  
“I’m...from…”

She couldn’t get the words out, for some reason they were caught in her mouth, it felt like she’d swallowed a lump of cotton and now it was suffocating her from the inside.

“...Take your time, dear, we have all the time in the world,” the woman placed her hands over Arle’s gently, and while her eyes weren’t open...Arle could tell that she was gazing at her very gently.

“I’m...from…”

She suddenly spilled her whole life story, she didn’t know if it was the tea or the woman that sounded like a gentle song or someone welcoming you home when she spoke, she didn’t know if it was the disorientation from landing, the disruption of mana from landing in a different dimension... Time? Space? She couldn’t tell. It was just… Something pulled the lump of cotton from her throat and a stream of words poured out, she said everything she could remember before landing here. She doesn’t know what time it was when they finished, just that the orange glow of the sunset was already filtering through the windows by the time she realized where she was. She was still in this building. Still with this woman. Still holding the tea, it was no longer offering the comfortable warmth that it was.

“I see…” The purple-haired woman got up from her chair and opened a window, allowing the evening breeze to cool Arle’s heated face. “I’m not entirely sure where you’re from, but I can help you find your way back.”

“Thank you,” Arle choked out, “That means a lot…” Her throat felt sore and dry and hoarse, she downed the tea, it was cold and bitter by now, but it was better than nothing. “I kind of just want to get back.”

“Ahaha, well, I certainly understand… but my word of advice is perhaps, enjoy the journey for a little bit,” she helped Arle out of the chair. “My name is Accord, by the way. I’ll be here whenever you need me, and I’ll keep you up to date on the situation.”  
“Thank you, Accord… I’ll stay in the area until you have something.”  
“Yes, I’ll be in touch with you and my colleagues, dear.”

And that was the end of it.

Arle couldn’t really remember what she did after that. She remembered coming across Amitie again, they talked about something. The details slip her mind now, everything felt too hazy after what happened.

She probably fell asleep somewhere.

* * *

She remembers the first time she sat in on one of Accord’s lessons, she was never one to sit still but she was curious about how magic worked here.

It was about the same as she remembered it, but they went into much more detail about magic, why it works, how it works, how magic changes with the intent of the caster… 

She remembers leaving at one point to go sit outside under a tree. Her face felt hot, and flushed, she felt...angry. She remembered Amitie coming out to check on her.

“Yo, Arle, you doin’ okay…?” Her hand reached for Arle’s shoulder.

Frankly, Arle wanted to slap her away and tell her to leave her alone, but she knew Amitie had the best intentions… so she lied.

“I’m fine, I just felt really hot in there, I’m not used to the summer weather here ya know?”

“Oh!” The concern vanished from Amitie’s face, “That’s good. I was worried somethin’ kinda upsetted you…? But I guess you’re alright… Anyway, we’re gonna go practice broom flying if you wanna come watch!”

“Oh, that sounds like fun… I’ll catch up with you in a bit!” Amitie was already dashing off before Arle could finish her phrase. 

She didn’t really want to see broom flying honestly. It’d remind her too much of someone she knew, she just wanted to sit under this tree and think about going home. Why was she getting so upset…?

“Gugu?”

“Oh, Carby…” she held Carbuncle in her arms. “I feel like these guys have something I was missing…”

“Gu?”

“I dunno, everything is...so normal for them. Nothing’s trying to kill them, or put their lives in jeopardy, their teacher seems to actually give a damn about their safety… Shouldn’t… I be happy?”

“Gugu, gugugugu!”

“Maybe… I’m a little jealous. Just a bit. I hope you aren’t mad Carby.”

“Gugugu!”

“Hehe, I knew you’d understand.” She curled around his small body a bit tighter. “...I wonder, what...I’d be like if things were different for me?”

“Gu?”  
“Would I be who I am...now if things were...normal? For me?”

“Guguguu…”

“Yeah, I’d probably be really different, huh. Maybe I’d be Amitie, if I weren’t me. Or Raffina, or Klug, or Sig, or Lidelle, or… Someone else. I wouldn’t be me.”

“Gugugu! Guguguu!! Gu gu gu!”

“I like me just the way I am too, Carby,” She was silent. “I just wish the things that made me into me weren’t so...difficult.”

“Gugugu…”

“...I think I’m here to make sure things don’t turn out like that for these guys.”

With that, she got up and walked away to watch her newfound friends practice their broom flying.

* * *

And now she’d been here for a while, it felt like, or maybe it was only a few days? She doesn’t remember the last time Accord or Lemres updated her on the interdimensional travel situation.

She rubbed Carbuncle’s forehead gently, letting her shoulders slack, she stared at the clouds moving lazily overhead. “Maybe I should move like those clouds above us…”

“Guuu...guuu...zzz…”

“...And just take things one day at a time, like Carby.”

She didn’t know if she’d find peace with the bit of resentment she felt towards Amitie and her friends, she didn’t know if she’d get back home, all she knew was...she’ll do what she can here to make sure no one goes through the things that she had to endure.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it.


End file.
